At the end of the year, I like to do a recap of the most downloaded episodes. Looking back at the number of times the podcast was streamed in 2023 amazes me. You all listened to the show over 583,000 times this year - that's over 1,500 times a day! I am so grateful that you tune in and find this information helpful.

Now today I’m sharing the top three solo episodes, top four interviews, and top five birth stories. You’re going to love revisiting the best of 2023 and I can’t wait to see where the show goes in 2024!

The Most Downloaded Episodes of 2023:

• Episode 205: Chelsea’s Birth Story - Being Informed and Advocating for Yourself
• Episode 202: Charlotte’s Birth Story - Choosing to Have a Miracle Baby
• Episode 217: Kristine’s Birth Story - An Unmedicated Hospital Birth with Premature Rupture of Membranes
• Episode 211: Monique’s Birth Story - Prioritizing Peace
• Episode 208: Candace’s Birth Story - Reclaiming Your Birth Story After Obstetric Violence
• Episode 204: Preparing for Your Newborn with Pediatrician and CEO of Newborn Prep Academy Dr. Emeka Obidi 
• Episode 216: What You Need to Know About Pumping with Dr. Dianna Dixon from Pump with Purpose
• Episode 213: Breastfeeding Education with Kelly Kendall, IBCLC, of The Balanced Boob
• Episode 210: The Freedom to Choose Your Birthing Position with Dr. Rebecca Dekker of Evidence Based Birth
• Episode 215: 11 Must Know Tips to Have the Best Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum Experience
• Episode 212: What Happens During Labor - A Sneak Peak Inside The Birth Preparation Course!
• Episode 209: The Umbilical Cord - What Is It, What Does It Do and What Problems Can Occur
• Honorable Mentions: Episode 190: Physiologic Birth, Episode 196: Postpartum Psychosis, Episode 237: Pelvic Floor PT, & Episode 234: Hyperemesis

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Full website notes: drnicolerankins.com/episode238

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It started with abdominal pain and ended with a medical helicopter ride... and a detour in the middle at the airport.

Listen to hear the story and lessons learned from it.

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The American healthcare system doesn’t value preventative care, especially when it comes to reproductive health. One tool that could help in preventing injury and improving healing after birth is pelvic floor physical therapy. It’s not a standard part of maternity care so its benefits aren’t widely known by practitioners - even I didn't know that pelvic floor physical therapists could help with pregnancy and birth related issues until years into my practice. It may not even occur to providers to recommend it to you.

That’s where clinicians like Marcy Crouch come in. With over 180K followers on Instagram, Marcy, AKA The Down There Doc, is spreading the word of the benefits of pelvic floor PT. She believes in and practices pregnancy-related preparation and recovery through manual therapy and functional training just like you would with any other muscle. Someday I hope to see pelvic floor physical therapists as a routine part of birth including in-hospital care but until then, listen to this episode and ask your healthcare provider about pelvic PT.

In this Episode, You’ll Learn About:

• What makes Marcy so passionate about her work
• How and why Marcy began offering pelvic floor physical therapy online
• What, exactly, a pelvic floor therapist is
• What kind of training and certifications are required to do her work
• What to expect if you go see a pelvic floor physical therapist
• Whether PT is covered by insurance
• What the most common types of pelvic pain are
• Which tools are helpful in healing and how to choose the right ones
• What are vulvar varicosities and what can be done

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Full website notes: drnicolerankins.com/episode237

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In this episode you'll learn why we prescribe baby aspirin, who should take it and how much.

Low-dose aspirin (81 mg/d a.k.a. baby aspirin) reduces the frequency of preeclampsia, as well as related adverse pregnancy outcomes (preterm birth, growth restriction), by approximately 10-20%.

Low-dose aspirin should be started after 12 weeks and ideally before 16 weeks and continued daily until delivery.

Low-dose aspirin is recommended for:

• Pregnant individuals with one or more of the following risk factors:
• History of preeclampsia
• Carrying more than one baby (twins, triplets, etc)
• High blood pressure that was present before pregnancy (chronic hypertension)
• Type 1 or 2 diabetes that was present before pregnancy
• Kidney disease
• Autoimmune disease (ie, systemic lupus erythematous, antiphospholipid syndrome)

Pregnant individuals with 2 or more of the following risk factors:

• Having your 1st baby
• Obesity (ie, body mass index > 30)
• Family history of preeclampsia (ie, mother or sister)
• Black race (as a proxy for underlying racism)
• Lower income
• Age 35 years or older
• Personal history factors (eg, low birth weight or small for gestational age, previous adverse pregnancy outcome, >10-year pregnancy interval)
• In vitro fertilization

Learn how to make a birth plan the right way in my FREE class - drnicolerankins.com/birth-plan

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This is a hard story but I hope that you listen. It’s such a demonstration of strength and resilience through an incredibly challenging time. After a normal pregnancy, Kerry lost her daughter to a rare epileptic condition at 3 months old.

What happened to Kerry and her family is rare but rare does not mean it doesn’t happen. The reality is that sometimes very difficult and painful circumstances happen during pregnancy and birth and things aren’t going to be ok. We need tools to deal with those unfortunate, tragic, and painful circumstances. Kerry does a beautiful job of sharing her story and it is an incredible demonstration of the tools that help with navigating the unimaginable.

In this Episode, You’ll Learn About:

• Why Kerry went to see the midwives at 40 weeks
• What made her midwife’s “spidey senses” go off
• Why her care team urged her to be induced as soon as possible
• How long she was in labor before undergoing a c-section
• Why her baby was taken to the NICU
• How long it took to figure out what was wrong
• What her daughter’s diagnosis was
• What her baby’s short life was like
• How hospice staff helped her postpartum
• What she wishes people would say (and not say) to those experiencing loss

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Full website notes: drnicolerankins.com/episode236

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The physical environment around you can make a HUGE impact on your labor and birth! There are 4 things you can influence in your hospital room to help create a positive, supportive energy around your birth (lights, smells, sounds, things).

Take my FREE birth plan class drnicolerankins.com/birth-plan

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The blessing and curse of living in the digital age is the overwhelming amount of information. How are you supposed to know what’s reliable and what’s not? It can feel paralyzing to have every fact at our fingertips. Fortunately, you’ve got experts like myself and Sharon Mazel to help cut through the noise.

Sharon is an internationally recognized parenting and pregnancy expert, author, journalist, speaker, parenting coach, and mom of four with over 25 years experience in the field. She wrote her new book, Bite-Size Parenting: Your Baby's First Year, to distill all of that content down to what you really need for baby’s first year!

In this Episode, You’ll Learn About:

• Why modern parenting feels so overwhelming
• How to tell if information is trustworthy
• What to expect from baby in the first few weeks
• Which parenting rules are actually myths
• How you can stimulate baby’s growing mind
• When to start reading to your baby
• How to balance your personal identity and your role as a parent

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Full website notes: drnicolerankins.com/episode235

Check out The Birth Preparation Course

Register for the class How to Create a Birth Plan the Right Way

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These are great gift ideas to help postpartum. You can give them or ask for them in your registry!

And learn more about postpartum doulas in episode 115 of the podcast.

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Mary Rose’s labor went so fast she wouldn’t have had time for medication if she wanted it. She went from “let’s do this” to “your baby’s here” in only 20 minutes of pushing! After struggling through a violently ill pregnancy, she got the beautiful birth she dreamed of.

Hyperemesis gravidarum made the first 20 or so weeks of Mary Rose’s pregnancy a nightmare.  It’s more than just morning sickness. Hyperemesis refers to extreme nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. She couldn’t keep anything down and eventually had to go for in-person liquid infusions after losing an unsettling amount of weight. But after that phase passed, she was able to have a normal pregnancy and a birth that went more smoothly than she could’ve anticipated.

In this Episode, You’ll Learn About:

• What hyperemesis gravidarum is and how it affected Mary Rose
• How her care team could have done more to support her condition
• Whether or not Zofran helped with her nausea and vomiting
• How infusions helped her feel better
• Why she chose a doctor who didn’t have the best bedside manner
• What she expected labor to look like versus what really happened
• How she used breathwork to cope with her contractions
• Why she’s grateful to have worked with a doula
• How quickly she was in and out of the hospital
• What her experience was like with placenta encapsulation

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Full website notes: drnicolerankins.com/episode234

Check out The Birth Preparation Course

Register for the class How to Create a Birth Plan the Right Way

Our Sponsors:
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It's Thanksgiving this week so I’m sharing 10 things I’m thankful for. I have so much gratitude and a big part of that is YOU. I know your time is valuable and I appreciate that you choose to spend it with me.

It’s such a privilege to serve people during one of the most meaningful events of their lives. Whether it’s at the bedside or sharing information on this podcast, I don't take it lightly that what I get to do is really special and I am incredibly, incredibly grateful to do this work.

In this Episode, You’ll Learn About:

• How my openness has helped me grow over the course of my career
• What makes me excellent at my job
• How many different skills I’ve had the opportunity to learn and practice
• Why I say that education is in my blood
• Who has helped and taught me during the course of my career
• Why on earth social media made the list of things I’m grateful for
• Who works on the show behind the scenes
• How my family inspires and energizes me

Full website notes: drnicolerankins.com/episode233

Check out The Birth Preparation Course

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Our Sponsors:
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